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Saturday, January 17, 2015

Week 63- Happy Birthday Nanay!

Happy birthday Nanay!! Hope all of your wildest wishes come true (just don't wish for me home or I might get caught up in a super typhoon or something haha). Also hope dad buys you some presents instead of saving them all for Christmas

Transfer week is always exciting with so many missionaries coming and going, so that has been the gist of our daily duties the past few days. It's always so sad seeing the best missionaries in the mission leave on exit day, but the welcoming in of new missionaries the very next morning causes a quick recovery of focus.

The next day, on thursday we had Mission Leadership Council, in which President Bertin shared a lot of thoughts from last weeks Mission President's Seminar (the 5day retreat for mission presidents in the Philippines). He received a lot of positive feedback and ideas from other missions and the area presidency and is set to make changes for improving our mission in the upcoming year. It seems likely that we will be refocussing the majority of our efforts towards member oriented missionary work. The goal being to increase the efforts and support of ward members while at the same time strengthening the members of the Philippines in the doctrine of the Gospel. We are all very excited for the new approach and the subsecquent initiatives that will follow in pushing our mission towards it's full potential.

The rest of the month of December looks to be pretty exciting and very busy! We have meetings galore and plenty of Christmas/Holiday Festivities to go along with it! I must say I am most looking forward to the 2 days of Christmas Conference on the 18th and 19th! We'll have caloring, games, a talent show, and most importantly a catered lunch! The mission will be split up into 2 so half the mission will attend the first day and the other half the second day. In addition the chruch has released its new initiative, "He is the Gift" that our mission trying to implement while working with investigators and member alike. Social media is a lot bigger deal in the Philippines than it gets credit for, so hopfully this new Christ centered push will generate a lot of holiday spirit and missionary energy. Everyone in the Philippines loves the Savior, making the Christmas season the best time to share a message about His atoning sacrifice.

As for the next few days we will be keyed into the movements of Typhoon Ruby. The latest reports say that the winds have died down from 250kph to 195kph no longer making it a super typhoon. However this will cause the storm to move slower, increasing the chance of larger amounts of rain and flooding. I doubt our mission is in too much danger, but we are more than adequately prepared for the next couple of days. The calling tree is in place, suplies of food and water have been purchased and emergency plans set to go. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear". Our missionaries will be fine, pray for the other Filipenos who are not so fortunate as we are and will be placed alone in the path of the storm. Pray for their safety, that they might be prepared for the remainder of their days on this Earth and their days in the next life.